FINAL PROJECT COMPLETION REPORT

I. BASIC DATA

Organization Name: WildAid

Project Title: Asian Conservation Awareness Program – China

Project Dates: November 2003 – September 2004

Date of Report: October 27, 2004

II. OPENING REMARKS

Provide any opening remarks that may assist in the review of this report.

In addition to the CEPF grant, WildAid received a $1 million grant from Stephan Schmidheiny, Chairman of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and founder of Avina Foundation, $150,000 from an anonymous donor, $8,000 from the Plum Foundation, and approximately $300,000 from the Barbara Delano Foundation. These grants, along with the CEPF support, have enabled WildAid to lay the groundwork for this ambitious five-year project to change buying patterns and attitudes about conservation in the World’s most populous country.

III. ACHIEVEMENT OF PROJECT PURPOSE

Project Purpose: The purpose of this planning grant is to create a strategic plan to develop a program that will produce long-term attitudinal change and purchase decisions of major consuming countries.

As a result of this project, there is now a comprehensive strategy for implementing a successful campaign over the next five years. The strategy includes work that will be done at the media, government, business and nonprofit sector levels. We were able to accomplish a great deal in the nine months that the project ran – and we surpassed the required performance indicators in all categories except for the survey work. Because this was a planning grant, we gathered only base line data as the nine-month period of the project would not have been enough to warrant collection of pre and post project data. We were able to establish contacts within the government, media, business and nonprofit sectors and to develop a series of public service announcements that will have national appeal in China and resonance on the global level.

1 Planned vs. Actual Performance

Indicator Actual at Completion Purpose-level: Reach 1.5 billion people with compelling Current viewership of ACAP public service repeated messages Generate public announcements is up to 1 billion people per week awareness and support for conservation worldwide in Asia, India, Europe and the U.S.

• Reached an agreement with Sina.com, China’s largest Internet service provider, to provide unlimited conservation-orientated content across their platform. This agreement will run until 2008 Olympics. • Obtained an agreement to develop the first nationwide Wildlife Conservation Awards in partnership with the China Environmental Protection Foundation (CEPF). The award ceremony will be held in the National People’s Congress Building in March/April 2005 and the selection panel will include Government Ministers and other high profile individuals. • Established an agreement with “Friends of Nature”, a Chinese NGO, to develop and distribute Educational materials for schools throughout China. • Collaborated with the China Environmental Culture Promotion Association, headed by SEPA Vice-Minister Pan Yue, on a number of nationally televised environment/conservation events. • Reached a preliminary agreement to produce a one-hour documentary on Wildlife conservation in China with CCTV10. • Negotiated an agreement with the Li Ning Sportswear Company, which is dressing the Olympic Team, to collaborate on promoting wildlife conservation in China. The group’s high profile Chief and former Olympic Gold medallist, Mr Li Ning has filmed a PSA for us and has given us access to his portfolio of current and prospective Olympic Champions. • Secured the support of the first Director of the Chinese Environment Ministry, Mr. Qu Ge Ping, who has filmed a PSA. • Developed a program of collaboration with 30 university green groups across Beijing.

Describe the success of the project in terms of achieving its intended impact objective and performance indicators.

The project was a complete success in that all the performance indicators were surpassed and we were able to make more progress than was expected in the advancement of the project concept among various stakeholder groups – we believe that there is a very high probability that this project will have a major impact on consumption of endangered species products if we can identify the resources to implement the recommendations.

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Were there any unexpected impacts (positive or negative)?

Initially we planned to produce several public service announcements but the concept was so well received by one influential Chinese athlete, Li Ning that he provided us access to many other athletes that work with him through his sports management company. Mr. Li is also a member of the National People’s Congress, his company dressed the Chinese Olympic team, and he is a highly successful and well recognized business leader in China, all of which lend additional weight to his support.

We also did not anticipate striking the deal with Sina.com, which will vastly increase the number of people who are exposed to the campaign’s public service announcements and other programming.

The only negative of this project was the unanticipated time and complications of setting up a legally registered representative office. However, at the time of this report, the process is in its final stage.

IV. PROJECT OUTPUTS

Output 1. Two public service announcements are designed, filmed and postproduction has been completed. Ads feature Chinese, American and other Olympic gold medalists. We will aim to feature Chinese and Chinese Americans in the PSAs.

Output 2. Future distribution with national, regional and local television stations within China and via international television networks is under negotiation

Output 3. Consolidation and development of necessary political and institutional links within Chinese Government has taken place in preparation for a much larger initiative focused on the 2008 in Beijing.

Output 4. Through working with NGOs, government and other interested organizations on a one-on-one basis, a coherent strategy paper for expanding the campaign in China has been developed. It includes: * identification of additional PSAs * plan for collaborating with local NGOs * capacity building for local NGOs on development of communications campaigns at the local and/or national level * development of a strategy to monitor impact and to identify attitudes and best means to engage interest and provoke positive change * fundraising plan for the expanded program

Output 5. Pre and Post surveys have been conducted to establish baseline data and to reveal prevalent attitudes and approaches that will lead to positive change. We seek to establish credible baseline data, via in- depth, qualitative and quantitative surveys, to show attitudes and attitudinal changes pre and post campaign. However, in the first 12-month phase of this project, survey data is most likely to provide valuable intelligence that will inform our approach to securing longer-term attitudinal change. The surveys will target specific interest groups - these will include wherever possible: decision makers and opinion formers - i.e. Politicians and media; and key grouping such as Restaurateurs, wealthy urban wildlife consumers and specifically, the hotspot in the Mountains of SW China. None of the surveys will be nation-wide at this stage.

3 Planned vs. Actual Performance

Indicator Actual at Completion Output 1: 1.1. Completion of announcements 15 public service announcements have been completed by the following Chinese and International Olympic athletes Allen Johnson - Gold Medalist 110m Hurdles Cathy Freeman - Gold Medalist 400m Dwight Phillips - World Champion Haile Gebreslassie - Gold Medalist 10,000m Li Ning - Gold Medalist (Chinese National) Liu Xuan – Gold Medalist (Chinese National) Maria Mutola - Gold Medalist 800m Maurice Greene - Gold Medalist 100m Sun JiHai - China National / City Footballer (Chinese National) Tanya Streeter - World Free-diving Champion Torvill and Dean - Gold Medalist figure skaters Moses Kiptanui - Gold medalist steeplechaser Noah Ngeny - Gold medalist, 1500m Linford Christie - Gold medalist, 100m Output 2: 2.1. Frequency of airing, footprint Secured tens of millions of dollars of pro-bono coverage with partners including: CNN, Channel News Asia, CBS, CCTV, Discovery Channel, Fox, National Geographic, Channel News Asia and many others. PSAs went out on national Chinese television and we have arranged for further distribution. Currently ACAP PSAs are reaching up to 1 billion people globally. Output 3: 3.1. Chinese Government participation in the Gained the support of Chinese State-run national TV planning the expanded program via the media broadcaster, CCTV, to air PSAs and related content. Reached a preliminary agreement to produce a one- hour documentary on Wildlife conservation in China with CCTV10. Output 4: 4.1.Strategic plan for ACAP years 2-5 Specifically we will seek to:

1. Create and demonstrate long-term attitudinal change toward wildlife among key audiences, raising the priority and profile of wildlife conservation such that new and additional, high-impact actions are taken to support it.

Key audiences will include: political decision-takers; international, national and local media; corporate enterprise and business community; educators (primarily Universities); traditional medicine practitioners and users; police, border guards and other specific agencies engaged in the implementation of wildlife laws.

4 2. Create an umbrella under which conservation in China can flourish, thereby creating new opportunities for other conservation organisations and initiatives in China.

3. Ensure that Chinese authorities view elimination of the illegal wildlife trade as a priority.

4. Deliver percentage rated reductions – via extensive survey work - in wildlife consumption. Initially specific species in trade will be used as key indicators, these will include – but not be limited to - sharks, snakes and turtles. WildAid’s overarching goal is an absolute reduction in the consumption of these wildlife species of 50% over the next decade.

A full strategy recommendation has been submitted to Jorgen Thomsen and is attached.

Output 5: 5.1. Report on the change, if any, in the The intention for the planning stage was to begin attitudes and purchase decisions of Chinese developing baseline data on attitudinal change. The public, particularly major leaders and those contract to gather this data has been signed and pre- prominent in the media survey work has begun.

Describe the success of the project in terms of delivering the intended outputs.

The project was a success in that we were able to deliver all the intended outputs that were included in the proposal and were in fact able to greatly exceed the requirements of the grant agreement

Were any outputs unrealized? If so, how has this affected the overall impact of the project?

The only output that was not realized was the completion of pre and post survey work – this was a mistake to include in the scope of work as the grant was for a planning exercise and was carried out over a nine-month period. It was therefore not realistic to gather pre and post data as the full project has not been implemented yet.

V. SAFEGUARD POLICY ASSESSMENTS

Provide a summary of the implementation of any required action toward the environmental and social safeguard policies within the project.

N/A

5 VI. LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE PROJECT

Describe any lessons learned during the various phases of the project. Consider lessons both for future projects, as well as for CEPF’s future performance.

The first lesson we learned, put simply, is that time is of the essence. There is now a relatively short period leading up to the Beijing Olympics. During this time we have the unique opportunity to exert unusually significant leverage. Failure to begin the full implementation of the plan in the near term will limit our impact and waste this opportunity.

Secondly, there is a very simple economic lesson that was learned. Costs are spiraling in China, most noticeably in the major cities and in Beijing in particular. While labor and certain other costs are still relatively cheap in comparison to U.S. levels, other costs are rapidly increasing. Dollar values are now being ascribed to virtually every aspect of the promotion and development of the Olympic Games. Thus great care and diplomacy are required to avoid unnecessary or unreasonable costs.

Project Design Process: (aspects of the project design that contributed to its success/failure)

The project was designed as a planning grant to set up a strategy for implementation of a full conservation awareness campaign. The design of the planning grant included outreach to various stakeholders in the government, NGO and private sectors, all of which will be necessary for success.

Project Execution: (aspects of the project execution that contributed to its success/failure)

WildAid has assembled a team of very capable individuals to implement the project – these individuals have a great deal of experience working on media related projects in China and in developing coalitions of various stakeholders to work towards a common goal.

VII. ADDITIONAL COMMENTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

WildAid most strongly recommends further development of a high-level caucus of International and National Conservation NGOs to develop common priority messages and unified methods of communication to the Chinese Government. These same common themes can also be worked into the structure of ACAP’s broader media work and targeted conservation messaging.

For more information about this project, please contact: Rebecca Respess Development Director WildAid 1050 Connecticut Avenue, Suite 1000 Washington, DC 20036 Tel: 202.772.1034

Email: [email protected] http://www.wildaid.org

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